For Schools

Wendy Durell offers consultancy to staff working in education who are interested in setting up Art Therapy in their school.  She also advises creative arts therapists and counsellors who are setting up therapy in a school.

The information below might be useful if you are thinking about therapy in your school.

Why Art Therapy in education?

Research shows that when children are experiencing emotional difficulties their general functioning can be affected, and they find learning very hard. Art Therapy as a form of intervention can assist with a pupil’s psychological, emotional, educational, physical and social development.

For an article from The Guardian about Art Therapy in school read Matt Keating’s A Place to Hide and Heal

Referral criteria

The pupils who may benefit are those who are finding it difficult to access educational opportunities:

• Pupils experiencing emotional and behavioural difficulties. Such pupils may present as withdrawn, depressed, angry, violent in their responses, lacking in confidence or with inadequate social skills.
• Pupils whose families have experienced significant traumas.
• Pupils who are struggling with difficult life experiences.
• Pupils experiencing relationship difficulty with others (either peers or adults) including bullying.
• Pupils with communication difficulties or physical illness.
• School refusal on emotional grounds.
• Pupils known to hurt themselves periodically when distressed.
• Pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorder.
• Pupils in transition. For example children moving from primary to secondary school and looked after children.

The time framework

Sessions run on the same day, in the same room and at the same time. 1:1 sessions are 45 minutes long. The duration of Art Therapy may range from a few weeks to a year or more.